Your Personal Brand…Only One Person Has to Say Yes.

There's a tendency, especially the more desperately you feel the need to get a job, (or even just a better job), to try and appeal to as many people as possible. Unfortunately, that's a terrible idea. I mentioned in a past post that if you try to appeal to everyone, the product ends up too bland to appeal to anyone. 

One Of A Kind

Remember, there's only one of you in your entire inventory to sell. You only have to get one person to say ‘yes'.

Imagine you have a goal to reach $100,000 in sales. If you sell a $10 product, you'd have to sell 10,000 of them. If you sell a $1,000 product, you'd only have to sell 100.

To sell 10,000 of a thing, you have to appeal to a much broader market than if you only had 1,000. There may be 10,000 people who want the job you want. There maybe a thousand people who have the same experience and desire that you do.  There is only one of you. You can compete against the 10,000, and sell to everyone. You can compete against the 1,000 and sell to a slice of the market. Or, you can be the only you, and sell to a select few who you know will “get you.”

Supply & Demand

Here's a simple truth that might make this easier for you: You can't work for everyone. It's physically impossible. There's just not enough of you to go around.

Better yet, you don't want to work for just anyone. There are people your personality gels with and people it doesn't. That's not a value judgement,  it's just human nature. It's fine.

But you definitely don't want to spend 40-plus hours per week in a place you don't belong. I don't doubt you can do it… but it won't be fun for anyone. Ultimately, the paycheck just won't be worth it.

What you want to do is let the select group of people you would actually want to work for find you a easily as possible.

Here's How You Do It:

At this point, some of this might start to sound a little familiar,  just from a different angle.

1. Create a profile of the kind of person you'd love to work for.

Don't make up the person, per se. Think about someone you actually know who possesses the qualities you'd like in a boss. Perhaps a relative or teacher or mentor you really respect. Maybe someone who is a composite of a couple of different people. What are those qualities that draw you toward this person?

2. Identify the things you bring to the table that would make this person's job/ life easier.

Now,  imagine this person is in a role to be a supervisor in the job you want. What does he or she do? How is his or her job evaluated by his superiors? What parts of the job does he or she love? Hate?

What do you bring to the table that can help them avoid the things they hate so they get to spend more time on the things that they love?  

Make a list. A big one. At least 25 things, but go for 50 (trust me… the first 10 will be the lame, low-hanging fruit the 10,000 would think of. You are not the 10,000. You are The One. List 50 things you bring to the table to make your ideal boss's life better.

Once your list is done, put it a way. Overnight is best. But at least an hour.

When you come back, imagine you are your perfect boss and go through the list and circle the top 5 things the would make you want to hire someone for this job, because you know they'd make your life better.

Now, come back as you. Avoiding the things you've already highlighted, spend some time combining two or three items at a time to see if you can create a superpower that's not already in your list. Maybe you're punctual, have a positive attitude and love market research? Your superpower would be, you dig up the details others miss and always deliver them on-time, with a smile. Or, you never complain about “grunt work;” in fact, you secretly love it and that's the key to your efficiency.

 Try to come up with 15 superpowers (by combining various individual qualities) that make you The One, and not one-in-a-thousand.

From this list, pick the 5 you feel would make you appeal the most to your ideal employer.

3. Create content around those things.

Now is time to promote the things that make you The One. In the past we've already talked about the nuts and bolts of getting your message out via your content. Now you have your message.

“But anyone could talk about these things! How does that make me special?”

Building your brand like this makes you special in two ways.

(A.) No one else is talking about these things. They have a resume and a cover letter and it’s all about them and their past.

(B.) You are talking about your employer's life and how to make it easier. You are talking about the real reason he or she wants to hire someone in the first place. You are positioning yourself as the unique solution to their problem, not an interchangeable cog to fit in the company's machine.

This is much easier to accomplish for a select handful of individuals than for everyone. That's why we make sure we're appealing specifically to the kind of person we'd like to work for.

Done correctly, your personal brand is the thing that separate you from the 10,000 worth $10 to everyone and the 1,000 worth $100 to a general market, to become The One that's almost priceless to a select few.